The Art of Regifting: How One Gifting Guru Turned a Faux Pas into an Eco-Chic Practice

Regifting has historically been seen as tacky and hurtful. But in an age of overconsumption and consumerism, regifting and reuse can actually show thoughtful attention to secondhand, sustainable practices — something everyone can be a little better at.

Jane Park, two-time eco-entrepreneur and founder of Tokki sustainable gift wrap, took note of the havoc wreaked on landfills during the holidays — a time when waste spikes up to 43% and 2.3 million pounds of wrapping paper are landfill-bound — and decided to give the term “regifting” a makeover: turning the once cheesy approach into a chic, forward thinking practice.

Park sets the tone that although the sentiment of regifting is anchored in sustainability, she wanted to create a practice that’s equally rewarding; offering eco-alternatives that are accessible, affordable, and have a little something extra to get excited about — and that’s Tokki’s digital QR greeting cards.

This holiday season, you can get a head start on spreading joy while saving the planet, as Tokki just released its exclusive holiday collection at Costco! From now through November, shoppers can find 10- and 20-pack multi-size Tokki bundles at select Costco stores nationwide and on the retailer’s official website.

A great way to ease into your ‘regifting journey,’ Tokki is a fun, new way to connect with loved ones and gift-it-forward through its endlessly reusable bag designs and self-loaded QR cards holding up to 2-minutes of original content from one person to the next!

‘Regifting’ Isn’t as Dirty a Word as ‘Landfill’

Heading into the Christmas season, Park urges consumers to hop on the regifting train, as an additional million tons of waste are disposed of in landfills per week — a significant portion being gift wrap covered in glitter, metallics, and color-saturated coatings.

To understand the full scope of the holiday waste issue, we break down the severity here:

Annually, Americans use nearly 5 million pounds of wrapping paper — most of this during the holiday season. This amount of wrapping paper, while in production, is equivalent to 50,000 trees being consumed and 17,000 barrels of oil being burned, in turn releasing ~16 million pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Half of this packaging ends up in landfills, enough to circle the Earth nine times.

In response to all this extra trash piling up, Park founded Tokki: a line of all-in-one, eco-friendly gift bags that are beautifully designed, combining tech with reusability.

While setting out to tackle holiday waste by creating gift wrap that’s an eco-friendly alternative, going beyond the act of recycling, Park was also aware that ‘reuse’ carries a negative connotation among consumers. “Most times, when people reuse gift bags, they are trying to make them look new or throw them away,” Park explains. “With Tokki, we want people to embrace reuse as something to be proud of — not something to cover up.”

How Tokki Is One-Upping Recycling with Eco-Conscious Reuse

Unlike traditional wrapping paper (which is used once and then discarded), Tokki bags are designed for endless reuse, made entirely from 100% recycled rPET water bottles and saving valuable resources with each reuse while cutting down waste. They also offer a convenient, hassle-free solution to traditional gift wrapping — a task that 52% of Americans claim they dread most during the holidays.

But excess wrapping waste isn’t the only problem Park is solving. Every year, 2.65 billion cards are sold to accompany the tradition of gift-giving. However, all these “season’s greetings” and “happy birthdays” add up to enough non-recyclable material to fill a football field 10 stories high. That’s why each Tokki gift bag comes with a unique, built-in QR code that directs gifters to a page where they can upload photos, videos, GIFs, or slideshows to create a custom digital greeting for their loved ones. When the recipient reuses the bag, they can use that same QR code to create a new message for someone else.

This gift-it-forward system is where the brand got its name, which is the Korean word for “rabbit.” As Park explains, “Our hope is that our gift bags will ‘hop’ around from person to person, spreading joy with every regifting.”

“At Tokki, our hope is for loved ones regifting this season to smile a little wider thanks to all the unique videos and photos uploaded to Tokki’s QR cards— and that people are able to share in the joy of connection by reusing and regifting with Tokki bags for years to come.”

From now through November, Costco shoppers can find 10- and 20-pack Tokki bundles at select Costco stores nationwide and on the retailer’s official website. Visit Tokki’s official online store to explore its diverse collection of reusable gift bags.

BDG Media newsroom and editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content.